A Fostering Relationship
by RedBlackandWhite
Summary: Riku, an only child, just wants to be alone this summer. Leave it to his parents to decide to have a foster kid live with them, Sora. And having a malicious cousin, Alysa, doesn't help either. PseudoRS, AU. Ch7 revised.
1. Meet Riku and Alysa

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

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** Why hooplah-ish I have no idea. Okay I got the idea for this story while in a tunnel under Niagara Falls. Great place for an epiphany I know. Okay if nobody likes this story I won't continue it because I'm busy with **Kingdom Insanity 2** also. Feedback please! 

Summary: Riku is an only child with a great life and great parents. This is all turned upside-down when his parents adopt a foster child, who else would it be, the timid Sora. Pseudo-RxS fluff.

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Please ignore the authors note above. It's old. I changed the humor a bit so that it's actually funny. Did a bit more editing than I thought that I would.

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Disclaimer: I don't own KH or its characters. Or Alysa, she be **redwing55**'s girl.

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Finally school was out.

Riku was glad it was, because that meant he could sit on the couch all day and watch T.V. marathons that you watch with a bowl of cheese puffs on your stomach. Being an only child, he didn't have a sibling that followed him around because they were bored. Just him, the couch, and his beloved television.

His parents both worked during the day, so he would be at home _all by himself_.

Well, except for Alysa.

"RIKU! Stop sittin' around you lazy bum! Why don't you do something productive, like setting the neighbor's roof on fire? That's _always_ fun."

Speak of the devil. For the record, Alysa isn't Riku's sister. God forbid that. Technically she is his cousin. Her parents died in a car accident when she was 12 and she came to live with her aunt and uncle. She's been living with them for 6 years now, and being 3 years older than Riku, she has taken it upon herself to act like an older sibling towards him.

An insane older sibling at that.

With brown hair, a splash of freckles, big blue eyes, at 5'8", and a mischievous mind that would scare the crap out of Hitler and Stalin (moreso than a free election), Alysa was a force to be reckoned with. She was a witty, observant, manipulating demon. But we still love her.

"ALYSA, _I told you_. My summer vacation _will_ consist of sitting on _this_ couch for 10 weeks straight!" replied Riku, furiously pointing to the couch he had almost fallen asleep on halfway through a Lifetime movie.

Alysa had other plans. Most of which Riku could imagine.

"Come on kiddo, this is our last summer together! _Joe's Snake Emporium is going out of business soon anyway!_ As a family! _Gotta love snakes! _Let's make it the best we can! _I'm sure we can find antidote! _I'll get the rum! _I'll get the rum!_" she replied, cheery as can be. (1)

Riku then remembered that Alysa had applied to be a camp counselor in Maine, spending time rock-climbing with kids in some remote forest nobody took the time to give a name.

Alysa. Rocks. Heights. _Children_. That, my friends, is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

"Alysa stop! Ever since you got back from your first year of college it's all about rum, spontaneous eruptions, and stunts that cause bodily injury!" cried Riku.

"Your point?" asked Alysa.

Riku remained silent.

"I doubt your plan of _ultimate_ laziness will work, because I think something big and mildly exciting is about to happen." Said Alysa.

"And what could that possibly be?" asked Riku, off-handedly, flipping past MTV.

"Haven't you noticed? What am I saying, you never notice, you're _male_. Whenever your parents are home, they're always pouring over boring stacks of paperwork the size of your head. It's all they've been doing for 6 weeks none-stop." She replied.

Silence.

"Oh, you're as much fun as a potato peeler." She said, leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" Riku asked, noticing the absence of insanity, and not really caring whether or not she answered.

"Oh, I'm going to go take Velma for a spin." Alysa answered offhandedly, referring to her beat-up grey blob that she had bought 2 years ago and become unnervingly attached to.

"Alright, but remember to listen to at least half of the traffic signs this time please. And would you PLEASE try and clean that stain. It's gross." Riku shouted, still on the couch.

"Don't I always? And no. Alysa does not _clean_ things." was her quick reply.

And with the ending of the third-person retort, she left.

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Riku's afternoon that day consisted of unscrupulously eating 3 times his weight in junk food, as planned, and watching a Friends marathon in German.

His parents got home at their usual time of around 6 and the screeching of spinning tires coming into the driveway nearly missing the neighbor's screeching cat announced Alysa's arrival at 6:30.

Riku's parents, when he finally noticed, did pour over stacks of papers as soon as they got home. Stupid Alysa and her ability to notice things. Or stupid him for not noticing things, whatever it was. By now he was curious.

They ordered Chinese food after Alysa stated that her womanly urges during this time of the month demanded Sa Cha chicken. Riku decided to eat in his room while checking email, networking sites, etc. He loved that his parents didn't really like sitting down at dinner every night. 2 hours later, Alysa starting banging on his door with what seemed to be a mallet from the sound of it. "HEY HEAD CASE GET DOWNSTAIRS YOUR MOM AND DAD WANT US!!!!!" she screamed. Riku groaned, opened the door to a smiling girl, and followed her downstairs.

His parents were waiting for them in the kitchen, his mother leaning against the granite countertop, his father sipping coffee at the table. Riku and Alysa sat down at the table.

"Riku, Alysa, we have something to tell you two." Began Tessa, Riku's mother. "You know that your father and I can't have anymore kids," _Ahhhh WRONGGGGG! _Riku shuddered as the nasty thought popped into his head.

"Since the first one worked out _so well_." Snorted Alysa.

Tessa glared. "So…"she continued. "we are going to have a foster child live with us!"

All brain function of Riku's shut off for about 12 seconds at that point, resulting in an open mouth and blank stare.

_MY SUMMER WAHHHHH!!!!!_

"Sora will be here in two days, and we've already decided, so you can't change our minds, this will be a _great_ experience for all of us." She finished, exasperated.

_My god I'm swimming in an ever-larger estrogen sess-pool._

"AWSOME, ANOTHER MIND FOR ME TO SCAR! Where did I put that hacksaw??" asked the enthusiastic Alysa.

"There will be none of that Alysa." Said Riku's dad, Richard, who had been silent up till now. "Sora is very timid, according to the Foster Center."

Finally, Riku found his voice.

"What?!?! You can't just drag another kid into this house!!! You have no idea what this does to my summer." He cried.

"Now Riku, Sora is coming whether you like it or not. And you better be nice." Said Tessa.

And with that they left the room, letting Riku stew in his own anger.

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The next day, Alysa was ecstatic. Well, more than usual. Riku told her not to drink that 4th cup of espresso, though he knew she wouldn't listen. By noon she was bouncing off the walls. Or at least she tried to. She succeeded in sliding down the staircase railing though.

Riku just sat around on the couch all day thinking of ways to avoid this Sora person as much as possible and to get her to latch onto lady spaz over there, Alysa. His parents spent all day sprucing up one of the spare bedrooms. Making room wasn't a problem, because Riku's family owned an enormous 4-story house and they had 5 spare rooms. For what, Riku had no idea.

The day went by unbelievably fast and the foster kid was coming at 11 the next day. Riku was dreading it to no end. Before he knew it, it was 10 pm and Riku was trying to fall asleep.

_So much for a lazy summer._

_My poor, poor couch._

"AHH IS THAT THEM?!?!" cried Alysa for the 84th time as a random car passed the house. She had been bouncing up and down in that chair of hers for an hour, as both of Riku's parents had gone to get the foster child.

"NO ALYSA IT ISN'T!" said Riku, who was at the kitchen table, spinning a pear around and looking out the window.

"Damn. What's taking them so long?" asked Alysa to no one in particular.

As soon as she said that, the family's black Mercedes pulled into the driveway. Riku woke up from his daze and watched as three people walked towards the door. Alysa had walked into the kitchen as well, vibrating violently.

The door opened.

In walked their parents, followed by a figure behind them.

"Riku, Alysa, please meet Sora." Said Tessa, stepping aside.

_H-o-ly SHIT._

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Reviewers receive ummmm how about a cookie baked with love from the author? No? Ummm, a piece of Riku's hair? Your choice. 


	2. So many floors!

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

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** SO MUCH FEEDBACK! I'm amazed, I got a ton more feedback on this first chapter than my other story's first chapter. Okay since you like it I'll continue. I just spent 4 hours playing Dance Dance Revolution at a friend's house. I'm tired. Okay, here's chapter 2.**

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**Cleaned this one up a bit, it's a tad better. Ignore above note.**

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** I don't own KH or its characters, or Alysa, **redwing55** lays claim to her.

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Before we cut back to reality as we know it in the kitchen, a safari into the jungle of Riku's mind seems fun. Jolly-O. 

Since the age of 13, Riku has _not_ been comfortable with his sexuality, as many of you kiddies are led to believe. Alysa living with you does a doosy on your emotions, and Riku is barely managing sorting everything out while dodging all of her malicious, usually multi-pronged, doings. So, he's pretty much open for discussion so far.

And as for telling his family? He knew that his parents wouldn't mind. They aren't super-religious people anyway. But Alysa, might as well stick a stake through his neck. Although sky-diving without a 'chute looks like a _blast._ But nobody needs to tell her, right?

Alrighty, safari's over. Now get out of my friggin' Jeep.

_

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_

That summed up the remains of Riku's thought process as a slightly emaciated, fair-skinned 14-year-old boy walked in. His hair resembled the offspring of a football and a porcupine, while having simultaneously budded off his head. His eyes looked like huge marbles that looked like those beautiful blue ones that you always drop and lose under the loveseat.

After his brain regenerated, Riku saw that this boy, Sora, was a good 4 inches shorter than him. He also noted at how the boy's expression said "I'm a foster child. Pity me. And awkward silences _don't_ help."

Well, a good 10 seconds passed, while Tessa and Richard waited for any signs of life from the two, hoping that Sora's lungs hadn't collapsed under the weight of the awkwardness and that his brain was shutting down.

"HI-SORA-THE-NAME'S-ALYSA-SO-NICE-TO-MEET-YOU-WE'RE-GOING-TO-HAVE-SOO-MUCH-FUN-WHAT'S-YOUR-FAVORITE-TYPE-OF-PIE-MINE'S-CHERRY-BUT-I-GET-FAT-WHEN-I-EAT-IT-BUT-IT'S-SO-WORTH-IT-FOR-THE-SUGAR-HIGH-DON'T-YOU-THINK!" Alysa shouted, gasping for air and grabbing Sora's hand and shaking it up and down with such force that Riku was sure he heard something break.

Sora blinked. The fact that this girl had just told him her name, her favorite dessert, AND her metabolic tendencies and _still_ hadn't collapsed from lack of air made him almost positive that that qualified her as part whale or other high-lung capacity mammal, a porpoise maybe?

Riku decided to chirp in at this point.

"I'm Riku. And I require 4 feet of space at all times." He said as emotionless as possible, stretching out his arms and mimicking 4 feet and keeping a cold stare fixated on him.

Sora merely blinked at the very intimidating boy making sign language at him. Living with him must merit some kind of government compensation, surely.

Riku's father motioned Sora up the stairs to show him his room.

Alysa, Riku, and Tessa were left at the doorway.

The last mentioned was smiling expectantly, sort of like a wife on her first anniversary and you better have remembered chocolates or your ass is on the couch tonight mister.

"So??" She began, throwing up her hands. ", what do you think of him??"

"It's a boy." Said the most imaginative and sensible Riku.

"Well of course Riku! Sora isn't just a girl's name! You and your stupid chauvinistic tendencies." Said Alysa, making a _tsk-tsk_ noise a frumpy old British lady would have been proud of.

"Well be nice Riku, _try_ not to be cold with him, he's been through 3 foster homes already. He needs a caring family to be with. And we can't be that family if you be mean." Tessa stated.

And with that she left.

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Sora's only thoughts as he followed Richard up the stairs were that if he managed to never get lost in this house and end up dying in some side-hallway from starvation, he would convert. Passing the numerous artsy pictures of what looked like a group of pears, Sora was stopped by his new foster father. Richard opened the door and Sora would have hit the floor if it hadn't been of anti-melodramatic soft shag. He had the biggest temptation to yodel and see if it echoed, the room was so large he could probably fit a bowling lane in it. The bed was large enough for four of him, which implies nothing, and the bathroom looked like a small spa. 

"Sorry about the paint, Tessa and I couldn't decide which room to give you, and we didn't get around to painting when we did." Richard said apologetically.

All Sora did was nod.

"Well, if you don't need any help unpacking, I'm sure Alysa or Riku wouldn't mind giving you a tour of the house!" he said, leaving with a smile spread across his face.

Sora opened his suitcase and pulled out his belongings, having done this quite too many times. Being in 2 foster homes where the families just wanted the reimbursement check was heart-breaking to say the least, and Sora just hoped this family wasn't the same case. It didn't look like they needed the money anyway.

After unpacking, he miraculously found his way downstairs, where the older girl was reading a book and the scary silver-haired boy was watching T.V. Sora didn't feel like he could talk to either of them without losing a limb (one way or another), so he just milled around.

It's a shame he hadn't counted on the girl tugging his sleeve, screaming "I'm sure you want the grand tour, right?" into his eardrum. How naïve of him.

Sora recovered from his shock and managed a small nod before being whisked away upstairs once again.

"Okay, the first floor has all your basic needs, kitchen, family room, dining room, living room, and breakfast room. The second floor is mostly guest bedrooms, save for Tessa and Richard's room. Why they need a whole floor to themselves, I don't know, I've never heard anything. Anyway, they each have their own office on this floor too, so basically the second floor is boring sitting space for depressed wrist-cutters to reflect." She said, pointing at random rooms and then continuing up another flight of stairs. "The third floor is where all the action is. That's my room…" she said, pointing towards the first room on the left that was giving off an eerily green glow,

"that's your room…" motioning towards a familiar doorway,

"…and that… is Riku's room."

She said stopping at the final door at the end of the hall. The door was closed and had a DO NOT ENTER sign on it. She caught him staring at it.

"Yeah, and you better listen too, because sometimes he remembers to turn on the taser doorknob. I didn't think he would use it that way when I gave it to him for Christmas…" she stated, trailing off into her own ramblings.

Sora hoped she was joking.

"Ok! On to the final floor." She said, broken from her personal rantings and pulling Sora up another flight of carpeted stairs.

"This is where all the other stuff is, we have the library…" pointing towards a large oak door,

"…go in whenever you like, next is the billiards room, which is off limits to those under 21, but your not missing anything 'cuz nothing interesting ever happens in there." She said nonchalantly.

Sora didn't think that made sense.

"How do you know anything goes on in there if you're not allowed?" he asked, speaking for the first time.

"WOW YOU'RE NOT A MUTE! I was starting to get worried." She replied, eyes widening and silently noting how young he still sounded.

"Well, there isn't any place in this house I haven't rigge-, I mean _been in_. Heh. Lazy Sunday afternoons lead to curiosity, I suppose." She said, almost failing to catch herself.

Sora was left uneasy by that comment. He was defiantly going to sweep his room for cameras that night, despite he didn't even know how one went about doing that.

"Okay, going on, that's the weight/exercise room, and don't be alarmed if you hear someone in there at an ungodly hour, like four, sometimes Riku can't sleep and he goes in there. I wouldn't suggest bothering him then, he likes to be alone with his musings and might beat the living daylights outta ya, don't worry though, I won't let that happen!" she said.

Needless to say that didn't comfort Sora much.

"Okay… looks like that's it, oh wait, silly me! We forgot the basement!" cried Alysa.

Sora was between shock at this girl and shock for how enormous this house was.

Alysa dragged Sora down 2 flights of stairs, past that scary boy again, who took the chance to glare, and down another staircase to a brightly lit basement. It was white and had carpeted floors, and save for a few couches and a T.V., it was bare. On the far corner was a mahogany door.

"We haven't really figured out what to put in here yet, but that leads to the wine cellar. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gregio, the list goes on."

Sora nodded, still confused.

"There's pool in the back, feel free to use it, and I think that's it. Okay, lets go back upstairs." She said, finishing the tour.

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Riku, in his very reclusive mood, had noticed all the warming up Alysa was doing to Sora. Recruiting was a better word. Watching his wired cousin drag the foster kid around the house was just to get him on her side. She can't complete all of her sinister plots alone, someone has to hold the acid barrel. In passing, the kid had looked at him more than once, and Riku relished in giving him a cold look in return. 

So today was Saturday, and tomorrow everyone would spend time with Sora to make him feel at home. Most of them willingly, one of them with the greatest effort. Riku's parents promised to stay home on Monday to _bond_ with Sora a bit more. After that they would get home around 4 everyday instead of the usual 6, leaving him with Riku and Alysa. Riku was dreading that.

But just outside the window, the winds of change began to come alive, but nobody was aware of it,

Yet.

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Review please? 


	3. Alysa's 1st Grand Idea

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

**RBW's Amazed Drabble:** Holy crap! After having chapter 2 posted for 5 hours I got 8 reviews! Why do you like this so much? Hmm maybe because it's a new subject, Sora being a foster kid. I'm soo happy! Here's chapter 3!

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** Ignore the A/Ns. I fixed this chapter a lot. I mean a ton. It's loads better now.**

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** Alysa and Doug don't belong to me.

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The rest of the weekend passed without anything of interest occurring. Meals consisted of talk centered around Sora, still shy and who looked at his plate when not spoken to. When he did look, those orbs stared at you with heart-breaking frailty.

On Sunday the family had gone to the park. Alysa tried to teach Sora to rollerblade while Riku just slept in the grass. The sounds of wheels on the concrete for only a mere 10 seconds was always followed by a spectacular crash, resulting in Alysa's voice laughing to the heavens, while Sora groaned.

On Monday, the family went to the bowling alley, which Sora had little difficulty with, the only problem being how much the ball weighed.

And now it was Tuesday, the first day without the parents.

Riku awoke at the usual 6:30 to the retreating darkness and the awakening of the birds, as he did each and everyday, despite his inability to sleep. He put on jeans and a shirt found from the bottom of his closet and walked downstairs, to find Alysa up and bright as a daisy, as he did everyday. This, once again, solidified his thoughts that Alysa was some sort of hybrid vampire/mailperson.

"So where's the kid?" he asked, pulling out orange juice.

"Tsk tsk Riku, you shouldn't be the one to call him a kid, you're only a month older than him." She mocked him, but not as energetically as usual. Her sugar hype was over for the week.

"You got his birthday?" inquired the silver-haired teen, as if it were all a CIA mission.

"Yeah, and you would've too if you'd spent more time with him." She retorted. "And on that note, I'll be leaving you with him for 2 hours today because I have to meet up with a guy named…"

she pulled out a slip of paper.

"…Doug. Seems he's my co-counselor for that camp next year, I hope he's not the bookish type."

Riku almost dropped his glass as a cold sweat came over him.

"What? You're leaving him with me?"

"Yes, Riku, I am." She said.

"You two need to get to know each other better. Needless to say he's already frightened of you."

Riku smirked inwardly at this comment.

"Don't worry, I don't leave for another hour. Oh and please don't accidentally kill him; I don't think that your parents would appreciate that." Alysa continued.

"Why don't you go wake him up?"

Riku opened his mouth to protest, realized the irony of doing such a thing, and went to do so, mumbling certain things not appropriate for anyone to hear.

He walked into Sora's tidy and unhomely room to find him dead asleep. Well, not _him_ per-say, all that had surfaced from the sea of sheets was his unruly hair. A sea urchin floating in the water.

Riku poked him once.

Twice.

Three times.

"SORA!"

Silence.

Riku stormed out, not wasting anymore energy on this summer-ruiner.

He stomped down the stairs, passed his cousin and said "I can't get him up."

"Pushover." Was all he heard as Alysa ran upstairs.

* * *

Halfway through eating a bagel he heard a loud _thump_ from above.

Then he heard Alysa screeching.

Then the shattering of a vase.

Wait, a vase? They didn't even have a vase in that room.

Finally Riku heard an unfamiliar voice, which could only belong to Sora.

"_AHHHHHHH!!!_"

Alysa came downstairs a few minutes later, looking extremely pleased with herself.

"What happened?" he asked, but only out of morbid curiosity.

"Oh well, lets just say Sora doesn't wear enough to be thrown out of his bed."

"How can you live yourself?"

"It's called wine hun. And scotch." She replied.

Sora came down a bit later in a shower robe, hair wet and sticking to his face, blushing as if he was coming off of a fever high.

Alysa chose this time to break the news.

"Hey Sora, I have to go out for a few hours, why don't you and Riku go to the ice rink?"

Sora stared at Alysa as if she were leading him to a guillotine, while Riku just hit his head against the granite of the countertop.

"Umm… I don't know how…" he murmured.

"Don't worry! If you're about to fall, just make sure you land on Riku! He's nice and cushy like that." She said, beaming.

Sora blushed and Riku was shooting daggers into Alysa's back that said, "burst into flames, burst into flames…"

"Riku, you make sure to teach Sora how to ice skate. I'll meet you two at the rink when I'm done with Doug. Then we'll come back and have some fun!" she said, waving her arms like a rainbow.

She snatched her car keys and vacated the area.

The two teens stood there in silence for a few seconds, the only sounds coming from water hitting the tile around Sora.

"Well go get dressed and we'll leave in 20 minutes." Riku muttered.

Sora quickly nodded and sped upstairs, the awkward silence was still lingering.

After a minute or two staring at the countertop for condolence, Riku cleaned up the kitchen and trudged upstairs.

* * *

The _pitter-patter_ of the shower hitting the glass, the muffling sounds of a towel, and the indescribable sounds of putting on clothes dropped into a monotone as Riku dwelled on the thought of spending an entire day with Sora. With no rational reason to hate him, he felt as if he still had a right to do so, but had to think of a good reason quickly.

Running out of thoughts to think, as one often does, Riku looked at himself in the mirror, noting how black his outfit seemed to be. A little too black for his liking actually, but laziness wins over fashion sense nine times out of ten, so Riku left his room to wait for the other.

Sora rummaged through his newly furnished closet with mild frustration. He had no idea what he was doing. After going to the park on Sunday, everyone had gone to the mall. Alysa insisted that she need new pants and that Riku would be shunned from Western civilization if his wardrobe wasn't updated soon by her, though after a while Sora knew it was just to get him clothes. Alysa could only accidentally find nice clothes that fit him perfectly so many times. And she had locked him in that dressing room for so long, but _just for this last thing_. And the parents hadn't contested a single item.

Trying his best, he found a black t-shirt and a blue sweater that fit him snugly, and thick, dark denim jeans to cushion his imminent falls.

He looked into the mirror, decided that it was pretty passable, and turned to leave.

Riku was grabbing the car keys as Sora's footsteps caused him to jerk his head up.

Sora stood there, having cleaned up nicer than Riku had expected, and was completely silent, staring at the floor.

Riku grabbed the keys.

The cold metal on his fingers reminded him of something.

He couldn't drive without Alysa in the passenger seat, since he still only has his permit.

"Crap." He muttered.

"Wha-what is it?" piped Sora.

The initial shock of Sora's voice passed quickly and Riku answered.

"I only have my permit; we need someone to drive us." He said, running a list of people through his head who he could ask to drive them.

Cloud…he hates everything…Yuffie is Alysa's twin…Aerith is out of town…there's…that's a stretch…

* * *

"Hey Leon, what's up?" Riku asked, the phone having been picked up at the second ring. "_What do you want Riku?"_

"I'm hurt Leon, why do you think I want something?"

"_Because you're sounding like Yuffie when she wants me to do crap for her."_

"Well, now that you mention it, I need you to drive me to the skating rink."

"_And why should I do that?"_

"Because Alysa is making me go and if I don't she's going to be super pissed at you, and you can bet she'll get back at you for it."

"…"

"Leon?"

"_I'll_ _be in your driveway in five minutes."_

"Sure."

_Click._

Four minutes and 57 seconds later, Leon pulled up in his black Saab, the lion's emblem shining in the summer heat. Riku could see Leon's scowl through the windshield, leaning on his hand against the wheel. Riku got into the passenger and Sora silently sat behind him.

Leon eyes followed Sora's figure through the rear-view mirror while he got in.

"Is this the new kid?" he asked, glancing at Riku and acting as if Sora didn't speak English.

"Yup, his name's Sora."

Leon held out his large hand to Sora, who nervously took it, obviously intimidated by him. Sora's hand was almost crushed.

"Name's Squall Leonheart, but don't ever call me that, call me Leon, call me Squall and you won't see straight for a week." He said with such normality that it seemed he said this to everybody.

"Psh, tell that to Yuffie." Said Riku, who was staring out the window.

Leon glared at him.

Sora was utterly confused at this point and resolved to make himself as small as possible.

The car ride was fast, surprisingly controlled, and showed Sora exactly how much contempt Leon had for doing Alysa's errands merely by the car's engine noises.

The car pulled up to the curb with ease, and Riku started to get out, Sora following suit after catching Leon's glare in the mirror.

"Thanks Leon! You're a doll!" said Riku, turning and waving, attempting to be as Alysa-like as possible to get the maximum annoyance out of the brunet.

"Whatever."

The car sped out of the lot.

Riku turned to Sora, having changed back to his I-still-don't-like-the-fact-that-I'm-dragging-you-around mood. Sora wouldn't have expected any less.

They walked in and rented some skates from the cashier. Rica strapped his skates on in record time, only to see Sora severely struggling with his. Only out of want to get it over with, Riku tied them for Sora, receiving the most miniscule of thanks.

Riku staggered towards the rink, keeping a firm hand on Sora. He stepped onto the ice, recovered from the first step, and felt a hard tug as the boy behind attempted the same.

Turning his head, he saw utter fear on Sora's face, and sighed at how hard this was going to be.

Riku turned to face him, grabbing his wrists and leading him.

Sora skates moved forward, lessening the fright on the boy's face.

Riku let his grip up just a tad, and the effect was instantaneous.

Sora fell violently, being caught by the wrists tightly enough so that he was leaning against Riku's chest, smothered.

Riku pulled him up to his feet again, seeing his red, and still frightened, face.

"Okay, let me help you." Riku said, knowing that not helping Sora meant disobeying Alysa, and disobeying Alysa is scary. Nothing but scary.

* * *

2 hours elapsed, those 2 hours filled with shaky movements and numerous falls. Lots of falls.

Damn Alysa and her predictions.

But overall, Sora had improved as much as any person could in those time restraints, and a small smile could be seen if you looked hard enough. Riku wasn't smiling, but was stressed and exhausted, the worst of it over.

They took off their skates, both of them flustered and red-faced.

"Well, well, well, had a fun time did we?" said an all-too-familiar voice licking at the back of their necks.

Alysa was leaning against the rink wall, obviously extremely pleased with herself.

"When did you get here?" asked a surprised Riku.

"Eh, about 4 falls ago." She said, waving the question away with her hand.

Sora blushed and found immense interest in untying his skate.

"I thought you said you were going to be 2 hours! That was only 1 hour and 20 minutes!" said Riku, getting quite angry.

"Yeah, Doug's fun and all, but he's all 'let's follow rules'. Total by-the-book guy. So I cut the meeting short and came here, but why should I stop you two from having your fun?" she said slyly.

"Whatever." Said Riku.

They left and got into Velma the Van.

* * *

Velma was, and would always be, the car you would hate if it was given to you, but over long hardships and engine fires, would grow to love it. Alysa liked engine fires anyway, so she loved it doubly so. Riku wanted to throw a barrel of nuclear acidic waste on it, it was just that disgusting. Especially during the summers, because Alysa drove him most places.

She was driving in silence for once, right hand on the wheel, left supporting her daydreaming head. A skill, perfected by her, that mortified Riku. Amazingly, her control rivaled Leon's.

By the miracle of God, Sora decided to speak.

"Uh, Alysa? Y-You said after this we were going to 'have some fun', what did you mean?" he said, his voice hinting the fear of an answer.

Alysa's eyes beamed through the mirror.

"Oh, we have a sharp one here! Well my little duckling, when we get home we're going to play a fun little get-to-know-each-other-game." Replied Alysa, looking at Sora through her rear-view mirror.

"Something I played in college when we first arrived. Oodles of fun."

Riku _did not_ like where this was going.

"And what would that be?" he asked.

"Why, my darling, that would be TWISTER!" cried Alysa.

Riku wondered if jumping out the window at this speed would maim him badly enough.

* * *

Review, s'il vous plait, the author took his sweet time to fix this up all nice a pretty. 


	4. Twister and Alysa's 2nd Grand Idea

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

**RBW's Completely-In-Awe Drabble:** Are you people insomniacs? I got reviews at like 5 in the morning! Well at 3 chapters, this story has already passed my other story (which is on chapter 7) in hits. And alerts. Reviews are still lagging by a few, hint hint. I still need ideas for my story title. Oh if you all have the time, go to **breakintoyouheart**'s profile to read a conversation I had with her on IM while I was writing chapter 3, its hilarious. Hmm…that's all I can think of to say. **(IGNORE THIS DRABBLE IT'S STUPID.)**

**AUTHOR'S EDIT (6/22/08):** LYK OMG HE'S BACK! Totally. Ready to finish this puppy. Let's see, in the last year I've: Learned how to write real fiction, learned how to write good poetry, wrote good poetry, wrote crap fiction, got published 4 times in a school publication, and got ooed and ahhed by everyone I know. Kind of a lot, right? As for the edits, IGNORE the AN up there, and hopefully those re-reading like the changes.

Disclaimer: KH. Characters. Not mine. Nor Alysa. **redwing55**'s. Want originality? Dig within your own pathetic self. KTHNXBAI

* * *

"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

- Bertrand Russell

* * *

"Alysa, there is no fucking way in hell that I am going to play Twister!" shouted Riku as he was dragged by said cousin through the front door, followed by a transfixed Sora.

"You will and you will _enjoy it_!" she said. She put her keys on the table and sat Riku down in a chair. As she started for the stairs, she turned around to give the offhanded comment of "Sora, make sure he doesn't get up from that chair while I get the Twister box."

Sora looked at a livid Riku and then looked at Alysa's retreating figure with a face that pleaded 'are-you-fucking-high-he'll-kill-me with-his-silver-claws'.

The two of them sat in the living room in silence. The large oak grandfather clock behind the both of them _tick_ed with a polite, yet awkward twang, as if to try and initiate some conversation. The pendulum realized its failure and went on.

After a few horrible minutes, Alysa returned with a large worn box.

Riku's eyes had reverted to seething slivers and Sora's, gleaming orbs of fear.

"Okay let's play!"

The arms that were thrown up with the comment were the most uncomforting limbs ever.

"Okay, Sora… right hand yellow."

Alysa was sitting on the couch, relaxed and quite pleased with herself. The process by which she had secured the right to not play and be the spinner was beyond Riku.

Sora obliged and stretched his hand over Riku's black shirt, towards the only yellow spot that looked unfortunately do-able. He shifted his weight forward and got a straining hold.

Alysa was the only one looking remotely happy, also the only one that was beaming.

From beneath Sora's forearm, Riku saw a terrible position he would have to take if he was forced to move his left hand. It seemed too much of a coincidence, but even coincidences weren't coincidences anymore. And that position would be humiliating

He hoped with all of his teenage cynicism that the merciful spinner wouldn't do such a thing.

Alysa spun.

The black hand moved and moved, scraping the cardboard with its cheap hellish manufacturing. It slowed down. Stopped.

Riku watched as Alysa reacted, moving her hand somewhat over the spinner, but not enough to know that she had moved it. Not that she would do such a thing.

"Riku…left hand green."

And with those four words, all of Riku's insides churned into a ball and collapsed inside him, almost physically pulling him down.

With all of the begrudging hatred in the world, Riku moved.

But not just his hand, no…that would be too easy for the she-devil. To avoid break his arm, Riku moved his entire body left, shifting his weight. Once he had crushed the accursed plastic ellipse with his sweaty palm, his entire view was blocked by Sora's right inner thigh.

Said party lifted his head up to see, and immediately wished that he hadn't.

"Okay Sora, right foot red." muffled Alysa, trying to suppress some kind of evil emotion.

Sora might as well have counted his face as an option, because it was that color. Nonetheless, he did what he was told, and lost his balance. Alyssa couldn't decided which was funnier, Sora's yelp or Riku's stifled grunt.

As Riku laid there, heavily breathing while 120 pounds of Sora was on top of him, all anger left his body. He now had the mindset of an insane ax murderer. And Alysa was to be his victim.

After some shifting and straining, Riku could see Alysa's beaming face through the mess of limbs.

"Sorry Riku!" stammered Sora as he scrambled off of him in a dazed fervor.

Alysa said, between the stifled laughs, that that was "enough" of Twister. Once the game was packed up, she whisked Sora away upstairs to do whatever illegal.

Riku didn't care, as long as his mortality wasn't in the line of fire.

He had his precious T.V. now. After a few hours of suspicious, yet uninvestigated quiet, Riku's parents came home.

They asked him how his day was, and the irony of it took all of Riku's self-control to avoid laughing.

"Just fine," he mumbled. "…my mental state is beginning to repair itself."

"What was that, honey?" asked his mother, her head buried deep in the sleek stainless steel fridge.

"Oh, nothing." He replied.

Riku's mother cooked dinner and they ate in relative silence, relative meaning everything but Alysa's rambling. Thankfully her rambling consisted of nothing that had happened that day.

* * *

Later that night Riku looked out his window as he lay in bed. He couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the cacophonic crickets, maybe the unbearable Maryland heat. Or maybe it was his dread of what was to be, what Alysa was going to do tomorrow. If it was anything like the events up until now, he could do nothing but worry. He continued to lay there.

_

* * *

_

Thump.

_Squeak._

Sora cracked open one eye.

Still dark out.

He could've sworn he'd felt a shift in the bed.

He thought it was himself, shaking it off as he lowered his head and closed his eyes.

He immediately opened them, hoping he wouldn't see what he thought he had.

"_RIKU_!" Sora whispered, staring at the figure in front of him.

Sure enough, there was Riku, sitting on Sora's bed, barely dressed, muttering nonsense.

Sora's mind was running frantically. Alysa barging in on him was one thing, but Riku, the one who wanted to kill him, was another story.

Sora pried his eyes from the scary teen to glimpse at his clock.

3:26. Just _fantastic_.

Sora got closer to Riku and poked him.

"_Rikkkuuuuuu…_"

No response except the mutterings, something about "Alysa" and "chainsaw".

Then Sora realized, in his amazing middle-of-the-night cognition, that Riku was sleepwalking.

Somewhat relieved, Sora considered his choices from this point.

1) Wake Riku up right now?

That was asking to be killed by strangulation, not to mention awkwardness considering the current state that would come beforehand.

2) Let him sit there all night?

Uh, no! Sora wouldn't get any sleep, and since he had figured out that Riku was an early riser, the boy would jump to conclusions when he saw where he was.

The only other choice: 3) Bring Riku back to his room.

And if Riku woke up? That would suck. Balls. Alysa would find his body the next morning with several deep gashes and surrounded by blood.

Well, he would have to move Riku eventually.

Sora got out of bed, put a shirt on, and tugged at Riku's arm until the boy got up in his sleep, still muttering. Sora guided him down the hall, the tentative footsteps still giving out creaking from the carpeted floor. Sora found Riku's room and pushed the door open, careful not to touch the doorknob. He maneuvered past all the clutter on the floor, directed Riku to his bed, and the taller teen subconsciously got in. Sora tried to move the sheets, but Riku just turned the other way so that his back was facing him.

Sora tried to suppress a nervous laugh as he backed out of the room.

"'Night, Riku." He whispered, despite his shaking composure.

Sora walked back to his room just as quietly, failing to notice the intent blue eyes peeking out from a doorway as he passed.

* * *

Riku's return to consciousness was the equivalent to being hit by a truck.

He sat up, shell-shocked, blinded by the morning sunrise, and cringing from a crick in his neck.

He knew where he was, yet he had a strange feeling of vertigo, an out-of-body sensation that had only been discovered when he had woken up.

Whatever. He needed pills.

He looked at his clock.

_6:15._

Riku jumped out of bed and threw on the clothes that were nearest to him

He walked downstairs to find Alysa, again.

"Morning, love." She said, in her sickly-sweet Cockney way.

"Hmph." Was his response as he disappeared into the fridge. He pulled out orange juice like he did every morning, only to deviate from the daily routine and take out aspirin from a nearby cupboard. He downed them like they were his only chance at life.

"Couldn't sleep?" said Alysa, trying to act concerned as she stared blankly into the depths of her black coffee.

"No, I slept fine." He stated.

"Okay then," She said. "Sora's still asleep."

"Good." He said with a sudden intensity.

"Why good?" she asked.

"Because the longer he's unconscious, the longer I'm not babysitting him and not ruining my summer" He sneered.

"You should really be nicer to him, he means well." Alysa said.

Riku stormed off.

"Where are you going?" she yelled after him.

"Weight room." He said, waving her off.

_Thump…… thump……thump _

Sora groaned.

Now didn't this seem familiar?

He opened his eyes to see an orange pouring into his window and feel his room shaking from at regular intervals. His ceiling looked unstable.

Riku had waken him up _again_.

He looked at his clock.

_6:43_.

Sora cursed Riku for depriving him of sleep. He got out of bed to put a shirt on and make his bed, only to realize the former was already done.

He made his bed, put sweatpants on, and walked downstairs. He was still dead-tired from his lack of proper REM sleep

He arrived at the kitchen to find Alysa beaming at him.

He was scared. He had come to fear that 'knowing' smile she had.

"Why, Sora! I was just about to come and wake you up!" she said.

"Umm…Riku beat you to it." He replied rather cautiously, grabbing a piece of exotic fruit from the fruit bowl.

"Oh, yeah, he gets pretty intense when he's lifting." She said. "Now that you're up, I can tell you two what we're doing today!"

"Umm…should I get Riku?" asked Sora.

"Oh no, we wouldn't want something to damage that beautiful face of yours! I'll get him" She replied, starting for the stairs.

Sora really hoped that was just her sick humor, but his gut told him otherwise.

A few minutes later, not to mention a thrown weight aimed at her head, Alysa had gotten Riku downstairs.

"Well?" he asked, eyeing Alysa.

"We're going to the amusement park!" she said, throwing her hands into the air for emphasis.

Riku didn't even bother to protest, he just walked (or more like stomped) upstairs to get changed.

"Good choice, Riku" She said after him.

"Umm…I'm afraid of heights…" said Sora, staring at the ground as if for an anchor point.

"Well, isn't this summer becoming a learning experience for you? Don't worry, kid, if you fall, I'll fight to get the most damage money possible!" Alysa reassured him.

Sora went up to change.

After 20 minutes, a shower, three different outfits, and yet another battle with his hair, Sora was ready to go. He made his way downstairs, expecting to find only two people.

He found seven.

It sure was an odd group. There was the scary brunet man from yesterday, a sweet-looking woman dressed in pink with soft green eyes and long, brown pigtails; a blond man who was equally scary-looking; a short, slightly-vibrating, black-haired girl who wore all black and was talking the brunet's ear of; and a pretty younger redhead girl who looked about Riku's age.

He didn't remember getting to the bottom of the staircase, but when he did, a loud screech erupted from the red-head. She ran over and started inspecting him, unscrupulously poking, prodding, and pulling. She eventually found the jackpot and played endlessly with his hair.

"ALYSA!" She looked over her shoulder to said woman.

"THIS CAN'T BE HIM! HE'S SOOOO ADORABLE!" the girl said, still playing with the spikes.

"No Kairi, we have a random kid in our house who we've never seen before and we just let him roam around like a stray cat." Said Alysa.

The girl blushed and finally back off a bit.

"Oops, sorry, where are my manners? I'm Kairi." She said to Sora. "That's Cloud," the blond man, "Aerith," the sweet-looking brunette, "Yuffie," the one in black, "and…"

"You've already met Leon, it's my understanding that he volunteered to drive you and Riku yesterday." Finished Alysa.

Leon mumbled something.

They all piled into the van. Alysa was driving, Kairi was in the passenger seat, a grouchy Leon and ecstatic Yuffie were in the first row, a quiet Aerith and Cloud were in the second, and of course, Riku and Sora were awkwardly squeezed in the back.

Riku was pissed about that.

The whole trip consisted of Alysa whispering to Kairi, Yuffie annoying Leon even more with a shrieking voice, and Cloud and Aerith meditatively staring out the window, lost in their own thoughts.

The van pulled into a parking space about twelve minutes later, and everyone got out. Alysa and Leon bought their tickets and they walked inside…

* * *

A/N: So I think the revisions went well. Read on if you want. Or don't.

* * *

"Evil draws men together."

-Aristotle


	5. Dance Dance Everywhere

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**

A Fostering Relationship

By RedBlackandWhite

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**

Drabble: (Author's Edit 6/23/08):

Bleh. Tried to fix it. This was probably the one of the crappiest chapters I ever wrote.

**Disclaimer:** Nope, don't own it. Nor "Boom Boom Dollar"

* * *

"Sora come _on_!" shrieked Alysa, pulling on the shaking brunet.

Alysa had collectively decided that they were going to go on the largest ride in the park, which was conveniently near the front. It was a grand roller coaster with loops galore, but one was strapped into a large cart and spun around while upside-down. Sora was absolutely horrified by the thought of it and in the end Alysa had to have Leon begrudgingly pick Sora up by his frail little waist and carry him onto the ride.

Riku had his own reasons for not wanting to participate, all of which summed up to resentfulness towards Alysa, the culmination of two days of pain.

Alysa had had the most original idea to pick riding partners, so that _none of them would argue_. None of them would have anyway, since Alysa made all the decisions, with the help of her estrogenic cheering section. Pulling slips out of a hat, Yuffie got "Squally", Aerith got the blushing Cloud, Kairi got her galpal…

and as fate would sadistically have it, Sora got Riku.

After five minutes of waiting, everybody was strapped in and ready to go.

Riku looked to his right to find a trembling Sora. That terrified face would've evoked pity in the strongest of men, though not a bitter and cynical teenager such as Riku.

No, the only thing Riku wanted to see was more fear from this boy.

The ride began and it lasted about a minute, squeezing in about seven loops, which amazed Riku so much that he actually let out a look of bewilderment.

They got off the ride, and Sora immediately ran for the nearest trash bin.

After that, the group went on a few other roller coasters, which were for the most part a repeat of the first one, full of small tweaks and creatively boring names that showed the obvious lack of funding.

Three hours later, the group found themselves walking through the water park.

"And why are we here again?" asked Leon.

"Because we're going to go on the slides. And crush the sweet little children" said Alysa.

"But we're not wearing suits." He replied.

"Nothing gets past you Squall" was her answer, but not without angry shouts from him. "No, we're just going through to get to the food court, it's the shortest distance."

"AHHHH! FUNNEL CAKES!" cried Yuffie.

Riku remained silent throughout this conversation, taking in the sights. The best way to pass this long, forced trip was to not initiate any sociable contact.

Riku was lost in these antisocial musings and didn't notice Leon's figure topple on top of him. He collapsed under the weight, fell on something hard, and heard water splashing.

It didn't take long to realize that he had caused the splashing water. He surfaced and, peering through soaking lengths of his own hair, found himself sitting in a large fountain, with the group staring at him.

Well, most of the group anyway.

He was just about to ask…something, whether it be "what happened?" or "where is…?" or "who did that?", when he heard a loud splash, followed by a gasp for air.

Riku turned his dripping head to find Sora sitting in the fountain with him, soaking wet, staring beneath his own mess of hair, and quite flustered in his own timid way.

"Riku! I'm…so sorry." said Aerith, obviously trying to sound emotional but unfortunately failing.

"What happened?" he asked to nobody.

"Well,_ poor poor_ Aerith lost her footing and fell on trusty Cloud there, who fell onto Leon," said party was looking furious at nobody. "…who almost lost his balance but was still able to knock into you before he magnificently regained it. You just happened to drag poor Sora down with you. And be next to a fountain."

Alysa's monologue gave her much enjoyment, and her smile grew with every line.

Riku knew that there was some foul play somewhere, but the predicament of sitting in water was the priority.

Leon grabbed Riku's hand and pulled him out,while Cloud completely lifted Sora out of the fountain by the waist. The two of them stood there, water falling off them in huge drops, only to sizzle on the hot brick.

Alysa was getting impatient and wanted her food.

"Enough lagging m'darlings! Off to thy land of sugary deep-fried grains and pints of sweet sweet artificial flavoring! And awayyy!" she shouted as she fluttered off, Kairi and Yuffie following.

Everyone complied, though not without mutterings from the men resenting the comments about being subordinate "darlings".

* * *

They arrived at the much-awaited food court a few short minutes later. The ground has the usually popcorn and plastic cup litter, and the counter looked positively disease-ridden.

An iced tea for Aerith; for Yuffie and Kairi, a popcorn the size of an elephant; a coffee for Leon which he had somehow managed to order, despite the lack of coffee on the menu; iced tea for Cloud, a large cotton candy for Riku and Sora to share, and two funnel cakes just for Alysa.

After the food was eaten (or in Alysa's case, massacred), the group decided to do one last thing before leaving.

"Well, Cloud and I thought about checking out the Tunnel of Love, but just for the…um…laughs." stammered Aerith.

"Well, Squally and I are gonna come with you two, supervision ya know." Yuffie exclaimed, with futile protests coming from the tall man behind her.

"Alright then, meet us at Velma, and don't play nice!" cried Alysa after them as they walked away.

She turned to the remaining three with the face of a wicked kindergarten teacher.

"Any suggestions, my cute little ducklings?" she asked.

"Umm…I-In th-the last home I-I stayed in, the arc-cade game was always fu-fun…" mumbled Sora.

"Ah! _Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!_" exclaimed Alysa, going in and out of her Cockney as she and Kairi grabbed the two boys and dragged them to the arcade.

They stopped in the front, and Alysa turned to them once more.

"Money for you all! No hookers, or at least, I don't want to see them afterwards. I'm not cleaning Velma out again. Away, away with you!"

She spread out her arms like she was about to fly away.

Sora and Riku nodded, turned on their heels, and disappeared into the room of lights.

Kairi peered at Alysa.

"Four weeks, no longer." She said.

Alysa smiled dreamily and glanced over.

"Darlin', please, I could get the other two together in that time. These two...not even a challenge" she gloated. "Question is, do I really want to?"

Kairi merely smiled.

* * *

Riku was really pissed.

Playing, and losing, at old school arcade games were one of the few times he displayed any of his dormant hormone-crazy emotions. This was one of his moments, as he slammed the console so hard that a nervous kid walking past ran away, sobbing.

Never mind, he was out of money anyway. He began to walk across the room, avoiding the passerby.

Soon he saw a crowd forming around…some flashy machine. The immensity of the crowd made it impossible to see.

He got a bit closer to find that it was that popular dancing game, Dance Dance Revolution. The one he found to be ridiculous.

He got to the edge of the crowd full of emos and pimply asians and saw a familiar mess of brown spikes jutting up right in front of him.

He walked forward…

"Looks pretty hard." he stated blankly.

Sora's entire body cringed inward at Riku's deep, emotionless voice. He looked over his shoulder and saw that it really was Riku.

"U-uh ye-yeah, but I-I'm ok-okay at it." He stuttered. He moved slightly to the left as Riku stepped forward.

Riku now had a fair view of what everyone was looking at.

A pretentious blonde girl was playing against an Asian kid, who was obviously losing.

Sweat gleamed in the reflection of the game's lights, and despite the arrows going up the screen at 80 miles a minute even Riku saw that he was missing a few steps.

The blonde, on the other hand, was beating him with ease. She actually yawned in an effort to mock him.

"Sora, what difficulty is that?" asked a slightly curious Riku.

Sora, amazed that Riku was initiating conversation, tried to answer.

"They'r-re pl-playing on He-heavy, the ha-hardest level."

"Oh, and can you dance at that level?" asked Riku in a slightly clearer voice.

"I s-suppose so, b-but I'm not v-very good."

They turned their attention back at the game, where the Asian kid was starting to physically stumble. The girl noticed and continued to gloat.

Finally, he gave in and fell onto the bar behind him.

The game ended.

"Ha! I win! Leave me, noob." She sneered.

The kid looked disorientated as he walked away.

The blonde looked at the crowd.

"Alright, who's going to take on Jarin next? HM?" she asked.

Everyone backed away two steps.

Riku immediately disliked this girl and her deliberate use of the third person.

A brilliant idea struck him that was so uncannily 'Alysa" that he shuddered.

"Hey Sora, why don't you try and beat that snob? Someone should." He suggested, looking down at the kid with unwavering grey eyes.

"Wh-what? N-n-no! I c-couldn't!" Sora exclaimed, throwing his hands out in defense.

"Well, anyone?" asked the blonde once more.

"He will!" cried Riku, pointing down Sora, whose face turned pale and then tried to melt into the floor.

"Riku! N-no!" said Sora ineffectively as the silver-haired teen shoved him up to the platform.

"You are going to play!" Riku stammered as he put his hand in Sora's front pocket and pulled out his money, putting it into the machine for him.

The snobbish blonde sneered, sizing up her opponent, who had just been abandoned by his taller friend and was left to defenseless and shaking.

"Well, lets start." She said haughtily, picking the song "Boom Boom Dollar".

The music started, and Sora came to terms with the situation.

_**Ready? **_

_**GO!**_

The arrows came up in one long blur, but at that first moment Sora was transfixed, and confidence began to exude out of him as the virtual MCs cheered him on.

The blonde was slightly taken aback, but still focused.

The song continued.

The crowd began to chant as they witnessed one of the most exciting DDR battles of their pathetic lives.

The song went on and on. It seemed longer to Riku because of the arrows, but he knew it couldn't be more than a few minutes long.

The blonde girl's smile was slowly deteriorating into a frown, showing even the slightest of worries.

Sora was gleaning with sweat himself, but was still showing no signs of slowing down.

The blonde missed a step. The crowd gasped.

And another.

And another.

Then five in a row.

Then nine after a failed recovery.

Eleven.

15 total.

Finally, the blonde girl jumped off as the song ended.

Sora's score: **267 Perfect, 0 Great, 0 Good, 0 Almost, 0 Poor**.

The Blond's: **234 Perfect, 2 Great, 7 Good, 9 Almost, 15 Poor**.

"WHAT! I LOST? IMPOSSIBLE!" Jarin cried.

The crowd was clapping for Sora. The boy was smiling vividly as sweat poured down his face.

Jarin stomped off, yelling obscenities in front of children as she went.

The crowd slowly dispersed.

Sora was still smiling as he walked up to Riku.

"Nice." He said.

"Come on Riku! He was amazing!" said Kairi as she and Alysa walked up from nowhere.

"Hell yes he was." Said Alysa.

Sora beamed.

"Okay, we gotta go," Alysa said. "The others are either waiting at the car patiently or making out on it. If it's the latter, then we can get some blackmail material if we get there soon."

Sadly it was the former, and instead they were told of Sora's amazing dancing prowess.

And so ended the amazing excursion to the amusement park.

* * *

A/N: Seems better. Review if you want. Or don't.


	6. Holy ACrapa That's a Biga Pizza

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

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**Author's Edit (6/25/08) -** Once again, trying desperately to fix this load of crap.

Disclaimer: Je ne posséde pas Kingdom Hearts. Disney le posséde. Je ne posséde pas Alysa. **redwing55** la posséde.

* * *

The sun's rays tickled Riku's face like that of a long-lost lover. His nerves danced a sort of ritual hymn like in an American Indian folk tale. A slight wind drifted over as he lay on a patch of grass. His transparent locks gleamed with an endless luminosity and were only dwarfed by the orange eruption dipping beneath the snow-soaked mountain peaks and plunging into the ice cold serenity of the lake.

It was…the perfect symbiosis of ethereality and majesty.

But the clinking of cheap utensils brought him back to reality. Riku opened his eyes.

He found himself in a dirty Italian eatery, filled with fat men in white garments and even fatter women in greasy garments.

_Alysa and her fantastic ideas._

A young woman no older than 20 came up to them with a slightly intimidated look on her face.

"A table for…8?" she said in a questioning tone. She ushered them to a table in the middle of the almost empty restaurant.

Everyone sat down at the circular table in a predictable order, the two 'couples' together, Alysa and Kairi for mandatory malicious planning, and Sora and Riku. Sora was absolutely terrified, while at the same time the slightest bit relieved. He was sitting between two scary men, one who wanted to stab him repeatedly, and another who never said anything and had eerily similar hair. His only comfort was that being two seats from Alysa meant a smaller chance of embarrassing things occurring.

Before the young woman could start to stumble through her partially memorized speech, Alysa started rattling off orders, staring at the ceiling as if writing on it with her mind.

"Ok, I want coffee, black like my emo heart, Leon, you want some too right darlin'? Okay, two then. The mutes will have green tea, the one that's talking her mouth off will have a daiquiri, LIGHT ON THE BOOZE, and the two kiddies will each have one also, but don't put in any booze unless you need to finish off a bottle. Oh, and the loser there will have a vanilla malt."

"But…um…we don't serve malts here ma'am."

"Do I need to teach you how to make one? Ever heard of that Harry Nilsson song? The cocoanut song? Same concept. 'Cept with a spoon."

"I'm only 18 ma'am…I don't know who…"

"LES BOISSONS, S'IL VOUS PLÂIT! Jesus Christ."

The waitress scampered off, her heels _clap clap_-ing on the authentic marble floor (the only aesthetic in the place worthy of that word).

"Why are we here?" Riku asked his now French cousin.

"Food means socialization. Heaven knows you all need some. And I'm famished. "

"And those funnel cakes were…"

"Respect you elders Riku."

"…"

Silence.

"Well…this is fun." muttered Leon.

"It takes time, dearest Leon. We could start off with a random, though not entirely false comment to begin the socializing. Like…the current status of your fluctuating sexuality."

"…You did not just say that."

"_C'est vrai_."

The drinks conveniently arrived at that moment. Before the shaking waitress could mutter a syllable Alysa was at it again.

"Okay hun, see that man there? He is a rock. A living geode. He eats diamond earrings stolen from vain upper class socialites for breakfast. Has the personality like one too. If you can't put enough peppers on our pizza to make _him _lose his composure. I will get unhappy. You don't want that."

"O-okay."

"Extra large would be _exquisite._"

"A-alright, I'll get right on it." She said, scampering off. When she arrived at the open-air kitchen, the party heard a loud banging noise and shouting that consisted of something like 'needing the entire country of Mexico on a fucking pizza."

Alysa had suddenly found sucking her straw to be immensely interesting.

Sora stirred his pink drink as the group suddenly broke into different conversations.

This day was quickly ranking as one of his most interesting. He had been scared out of his mind numerous times, seen the effects of abnormal hormone levels in a young woman (numerous times), had fallen into a fountain beneath a fine boy, witnessed th…..WOAH,

HOLD. THE. PHONE.

REPEAT THAT.

REWIND… times), had fallen into a fountain beneath a fine boy…STOP!

Since _when the hell_ did "fine" become an acceptable adjective for RIKU??

WHEN GODDAMNIT??

We're talking about I-hate-you-and-when-your-back-is-turned-I'm-going-to-carve my-initials-into-your-back-with-a-six-inch-knife Riku, correct?

Sora shuddered a bit.

Okay, he didn't _mean_ to think _that_, per-say. He must've been disorientated by the mixture of the smell of greasy cheese and that of Cloud's over-priced cologne. It was a total mishap. He would never go there.

Think females. Think estrogen time-bombs. Think cryptic holiday comments while you're walking out the door for work. _Bingo_.

_Whew._

Sora shook his head and took a scan of the table, hoping nobody had noticed that he had just psychoanalyzed himself.

Kairi was talking Riku's ear off with a conversation that included "Prada", Cloud had his eyes closed and was sleeping, his hair (why did it look like his own?) covering most of his upper face.

Yuffie's alcohol had taken effect, though she was more hyper than drunk, resulting in a hybrid state which included more flailing and vibrating. She was explaining to Leon the pros of getting a mohawk in order to attract more mates, female and male alike. It was at this point that he muttered a comment about quote, "killing that bartender bitch".

Aerith was sipping her tea daintily and listening in on Yuffie's spasmastic monologue, slightly smirking at the finer moments. Every now and then she would take a stolen glance at Cloud's sleeping figure. Alysa was just staring.

At him.

Sora lost the feeling in his legs and a cold shiver ran down his spine, the intersection between lifelessness and electricity being at his pelvis. He couldn't breathe for a moment, the eerie feeling of having Alysa know what he was thinking was incomprehensible.

Those menacing eyes pierced right through him, delving into his most precious of thoughts.

A smirk crept onto her face, and Sora lost all the feeling below his waist.

She turned away to reply to Kairi's comment.

Sora took a breath. He still didn't know what to think of her, and if he ever made it through this summer he was going to write a book called,

My Experiences Living With a Manipulative and Psychic (Or Rather Psychotic) Girl and Her Scary-Looking Cousin

It would hit the bestseller list and Sora would become world-famous for a long time until an unfortunate event in front of a random Parisian café maimed him in some way and then would live the rest of his days in a quaint home in Montana with a Pinto named Pugsley. He would write depressing stories about a Canadian double amputee Mormon liberal named Boris until he finally died of some old person's disease that's 186 letters long (give or take a few).

But seriously, Alysa still freaked the shit out of him.

"PIZZA!" cried Yuffie.

The waitress set the extremely large pie down on the table with a shaking hand, turned on her heel and ran away so fast that the fur on Leon's jacket fluttered in the wind vacuum.

"Pity, she was such character too." Said Alysa, nonchalantly.

Sora stared at the monster of a pizza.

It had so many peppers on it that the cheese was hardly visible.

"Alysa! That's disgusting! Nobody would be able to eat that!" said Kairi.

"Nonsense!" she said, digging her hands into the mess and pulling out a slice.

Everybody else complied and took one.

They all ate in silence, for one reason because it was actually pretty good, the other being that they were burning off their taste buds and all of their tongues were becoming numb. The only sound was that of water glasses clinking.

* * *

By the end of the long and silent meal, only Alysa, Leon, and Cloud were tear-free, though truthfully Cloud had dabbed his cheek when nobody was looking, passing it off as wiping his mouth.

"Waitress!" Alysa cried to the ceiling. The few other patrons in the room glared at her.

The poor girl appeared seconds later, peering from afar before coming closer. Upon seeing that the scary man was still composed, she started to shake harder.

"Is there anything I can get you?" she asked very nervously.

"Check?"

"Oh! Of course!" she said, taken aback but breaking into a small smile.

"That was…_sniff_…very…_sniff_…good." Said Kairi.

The check came and Alysa looked at it.

"Thanks for taking us Alysa!" said Yuffie.

"What? Why are you thanking me? Leon's paying." She said, sticking the check in Leon's jacket and walking out the door.

* * *

"That sure was fun." remarked Sora as they walked into the foyer of the house.

"Sure was. I never knew Leon could turn that many shades of red in such a short time. Absolutely remarkable." Said Alysa.

Riku remained silent, as had been his policy for most of the day. He had had enough of Alysa for the day. He moved towards the staircase as quietly as possible.

"And where do you think you're going?" she asked, turning around and putting her hands on her hips.

"Room."

"To put a bathing suit on you will." She said.

"What?"

"We've decided to go in the pool."

"We? Where was I when this was decided?"

"What do you mean? I told Velma to tell you we were going to the pool. Apparently she doesn't like you enough to talk to you."

"Alysa, your van does not talk."

"Of course it does."

"WHATEVER!"

He stormed up to his room, fuming and cursing.

Sora was staring at his retreating figure.

"Well, go and get changed!" remarked Alysa. She motioned movement with her hands.

He quickly obliged, following Riku.

To tell the truth, Sora hated swimming. Any activity that socially required him to shed clothing played on his slight gymnophobia. One result of foster care was the fear of being exposed, and wearing less clothing didn't help. It also didn't help that he thought he looked doughy and pale.

He slowly got changed, his mind going through all of the horrible possibilities that could occur outside.

Once he was done, he drudged downstairs, crossed the cold tile of the kitchen, and opened the sliding door to the backyard…

**

* * *

**

A/N:

Hope you think it's better. Review if you feel so inclined. 


	7. Poolside and Thunderstruck

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

**

* * *

**

Author's Edit (6/26/06):

Story's getting better. Don't like the content, suck it. Or leave.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own. Nothing. Never.

* * *

Sora walked onto the sun-soaked patio, shielding his eyes from the direct sunlight. He stepped nervously near the edge of the pool and found Alysa sunbathing. She wore a pink bikini and a pair of sunglasses that made her even more frightening.

"There he is! My favorite foster-brother!"

Sora sat down.

"Where's Riku?"

"Changing, I swear he takes an eternity and a daytime talk show to get changed" she replied. "But you shouldn't have to wait for him! Come on, take off the shirt and endow us with your god-like physique."

"Uh…"

Before he could find some excuse, Riku walked out, wearing one of those flowered swimsuits and a navy shirt.

He threw his towel down and began to remove his shirt.

"Riku, how rude. You should wait for everyone else to arrive" Alysa mocked.

"What the hell do you mean everyone else?" he inquired, frozen. Riku glared at her black lenses.

"Everybody! Yuffie, Kairi, Cloud, Aerith, and that oh-so-cheerful ball of sunshine."

"I thought they went home."

"Yes, but to get changed. See Riku, _sane_ people put on proper attire before jumping into bodies of water, unlike _you_."

"I was pushed in!"

"Sure you were, and Yuffie's obsessed with all things ren-faire."

"What are you talking about? She is obsessed with that stuff."

"Riku, we can continue _your_ pointless conversation about anachronistic festivals or you can go ahead and jump in the pool."

"But you told me to wait!"

"You must be hearing things."

"…"

Riku took off his shirt, and Sora suddenly found the left leg of Alysa's chair extremely interesting, which, sadly, didn't go unnoticed.

Riku ran for the pool, his feet making dull noises against the concrete before he jumped in, sending a wave of water in all directions, getting Sora wet.

Alysa was, amazingly, still bone dry.

He surfaced, his silver hair hanging limp against his cheeks, dripping water down to his chin, his neck, and further down.

He bobbed in the water, letting only his nose and eyes stay above the water. His aquamarine orbs surveyed the two, settling on Sora's figure. They began to pierce him.

Sora broke his glare and stood up. He slowly removed his shirt. Without hesitation he jumped into the pool.

Despite the horrors of being half naked in public, Sora had always loved the first few seconds of being underwater.

The creeping of refreshing cold from all sides shocked him, and he could never appreciate it enough.

Soon his lungs emptied, and he started to float to the bottom. All he could see was blue and Riku's body. Soon his chest started to burn.

He broke the surface with a loud gasp, clawing for air. He made a mental note to appreciate things like that less.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the others had just arrived.

"Yuffie I told you I'm not swimming." growled the always exasperated Leon, who was sporting black boardshorts and a black T-shirt.

"Nonsense!" cried the ninja, clad in, you guessed it, a pure black bikini.

Aerith and her silent companion came into view behind them. She wore a modest pink 2-piece and Cloud wore all navy. Kairi was already conversing with Alysa, in a fiery red bikini.

The newcomers got settled, and the females proceeded to sunbathe while Leon and Cloud took off their shirts and sandals.

Sora plunged himself underwater once more, grabbing at the elusive liquid and clawing every which way.

He expected the thunderous sounds of displaced water from Leon and Cloud, though none came.

He peered out onto the pool deck again. The girls were chatting (Aerith was listening), Leon had dark shades on and was sunbathing/sleeping/looking angry, Cloud was dangling his feet in the water, staring aimlessly as he did so. Riku was floating on his back, his eyes closed. Sora imitated him, kicking absentmindedly as he napped on the transparent, moving surface.

One could only imagine how _relaxing_ the afternoon might have been if the girls hadn't forced them to play childish games with each other. The girls sat and watched. Leon and Cloud were eventually forced to get it in, though they played only half-heartedly.

Sora actually enjoyed himself; soon he had a smile on his face. He wasn't keen on laughing, mostly because he was playing chicken against Riku (who wanted to kill him), and Leon would kill him if he screwed up while on his shoulders.

* * *

Three hours, a stray glass of wine and seven collective tan shades later, it was time to call it a day.

The group left, much to Leon's delight, leaving the trio alone.

The phone rang as they were walking out the door and Alysa ran to answer it.

Riku stole the opportunity to move towards the stairs for an escape, playing it off while drying off. Alysa had none of it, and she grabbed the back of Riku's suit and pulled him back. He let out a deep yelp and flung out his arms. She motioned him towards the kitchen island as she hung up the phone.

Sora was already there, drying his hair.

"Okay, Mom and Dad aren't coming home 'cuz they got business crap to do, so it's just us!"

Alysa tried to add pep to the end of the statement, but the words succeeded in putting Riku in a much worse mood. Alysa in charge for longer was never good.

"Anyway, we're ordering sushi, what do ya want?"

"….I've n-never had sushi," said Sora.

"That makes two…no wait three of us! Sorry, forgot you were there Riku" replied Alysa.

Riku completely ignored her and asked "Wait, why don't you just cook something?"

Alysa sighed. "Riku, _darling_, you _know_ that I only cook for special occasions. If I cooked everyday it wouldn't be as special. Grilled cheese can only be _so_ utterly fantastic."

Riku shuddered at thought.

"Okay, since we have no idea what the hell we're getting, let's pick with Alysa's patented decision maker!"

47 seconds later, Alysa had pinned up the take-out menu to the wall and had gotten three darts.

Both boys were frightened and shielding themselves with whatever possible from behind Alysa.

Alysa threw the darts and, due to the author's need of all the main characters alive, there were no casualties.

Satisfied with the results, Alysa called up the restaurant, and when somebody answered, she started speaking Japanese.

She hung up soon after, catching his awed stare.

"What?"

"Since when can u speak a second language?"

"Since I'm smarter than you. I can also speak Dutch and Russian. _Kom op Riku einde zijnd een idiot._ _Изучение других языков легко."_ She mocked.

All of the lights in the house went out at that moment.

The house was entirely quiet, save for Riku muttering an explicative. The interior of the house was full of shadows, though the full pane windows let in the setting sun, leaving an aquatic blue/purple tint to the place.

Riku moved towards the glass. His hair and body soon took on a violet glow as he squinted to look. Beneath the black-violet clouds was a torrent of wind, which had pulled up a tree and deposited it onto a pole, crushing it. The debris whipped up around the scene, and even through the glass Riku could feel the tense, hot air.

"Apparently the power will be out for a while" he said, turning to the others.

"Well," began Sora "a-as long-g as it doesn't t-thund-"

**BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM**

The monstrous house shook from the auditory shock wave. Riku jumped and Alysa grabbed the couch for support. Sora's figure was buried into the kitchen table, beneath his towel. The towel was shaking.

Alysa frowned at his figure, and a motherly look came onto her face. She glanced at Riku.

"Maybe we should sleep in the family room together, just to be safe. Go get the sleeping bags."

"What! No way! You can stay with him, but why should I?" cried Riku, ignoring Sora's pitiful shaking.

"Because there are laws for such misconduct, and hormone overloads aren't pretty, so it would be better if there were three of us." She replied.

Riku said nothing more, which he was beginning to think was the cause of his constant downfall.

* * *

Riku was walking down the last flight of stairs, three huge sleeping bags slung over his shoulder, when a knock at the door was barely heard. Alysa answered it.

A pathetic Japanese man stood there. He was more water than anything, and his arms barely supported the bag of sushi. Alysa broke into frantic Japanese and took the food, handing him a generous pile of bills. He turned and left.

Alysa closed the door and beckoned Riku and Sora (the latter had molded himself to the couch up until then) to the middle of the large family room. Alysa got plates and brought the food to them, opening it slowly, as to accentuate the sound of popping plastic lids. Soon they saw an array of colorful rolls.

Riku took a breath in.

"ALYSA, what the hell is that?"

"Something fish. Looks yummy."

They ate in the midst of Alysa's chatter. The interesting tastes and scary noises were too much for Sora, and soon he stopped eating.

After the meal, Alysa lit candles, just in time for the sun to disappear from the windows.

"So!" Alysa exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "I thought we would pass the time with a little icebreaker game."

Riku was apprehensive.

"What?"

Her response was simple, but so shocking that Riku lost his hearing, and only the movements of her lips were enough to seal his fate.

Three words.

Truth or dare.

**

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A/N (6/27/08):

These take forever. Soon I'll write new chapters. 


	8. Screw Armageddon it's Truth or Dare

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

**RBW's 100-Review Milestone Drabble:** 100 REVIEWS! On October 2nd, at 1:39 pm, **wickedlfairy17** sent the 100th review! Congrats to her. I'm soooo happy. Haha yeah right like any of you care. Actually as a thank-you I'm writing something that you all will love. Anyway, as if there wasn't enough sexual tension between Sora and Riku. Hmm… amazing there's absolutely nothing for the author to ramble about (alert the press). Enjoy!

**Words: 1874**

**Disclaimer:**

**What came first, the chicken or the egg?**

**Who the hell cares? Either way I still don't own Kingdom Hearts (Disney, Square Enix), its characters, or Alysa (redwing55).**

On with the madness…

* * *

Sora pulled his head through the collar of his t-shirt, his eyes having to adjust to the darkness once again. 

After immense, though ultimately meaningless, protests from Riku, Alysa told them to get ready for bed, yet "still decent" due to the close quarters. Sora walked down all those stairs down to the family room, where Riku and Alysa were presently still arguing over the Truth or Dare thing.

Sora personally had no horrible past that included Truth or Dare, but the fact that Alysa could, and under the unusual bad luck he'd been having in the past few days, _would_ dare him to do something embarrassing was still in the back of his mind.

They gathered in the center, and Alysa started.

"Alright now, hmmm…"

The tension of who would be the first victim was killer.

"Riku." She said, dropping the bomb.

"Truth or Dare?"

Riku had in fact thought up his plan beforehand, but, much like Rumsfeld and Iraq (1), he completely forgot that plan and blindly chose one of the two, a grave mistake.

"Dare." He said, quite flustered due to aforementioned mental processing (or lack thereof).

Alysa flashed that smile of hers.

"Alright then, I dare you to…go into the freezer and chug half a bag of frozen broccoli."

Riku sighed, more from relief then the stupidity of the dare, got up, and walked into the kitchen. He opened the freezer, which was still cold despite the lack of power, and pulled out a bag of frozen broccoli. He brought it into the other room where the other 2 were waiting.

Riku sat down, and easily tore the bag open.

He brought it to his mouth, paused, feeling the 2 sets of eyes on him, waiting.

He tilted the bag, feeling the frosted bits of greenery slither down his throat.

Riku had to stop a few times, but after 4 minutes he had eaten half the bag, and was trying to get the taste out of his mouth and stop shivering from the ice.

Riku now realized his temporary power as the next person to go.

Payback time baby.

"Alysa, Truth or Dare."

Alysa remained staring at him, unphased by his choice.

"Truth." She said, with a curious smirk on her face.

"How many times have you done it?" He said, with a seemingly sure tone.

_Oh, he's making it sexual is he? He'll regret that for sure._ (2 (make sure to see footnote))

"Never. I'm a virgin and proud of it." She said, with genuine pride. (3)

Riku slumped, realizing what a waste that was.

"Sora's turn!" exclaimed Alysa.

Sora looked uneasy, and then directed his attention to the other male in the room.

"R-Riku."

The silver-haired teen turned and stared at him with an icy glare.

"Truth or Dare."

"Truth."

"O-okay, then have you ever gone skinny-dipping?" Sora asked.

Alysa cracked up, slapping Sora on the back in immense approval.

Riku was flabbergasted. This was very out of character for Sora to be that bold.

Oh, right, an answer.

"Y-yes." Murmured Riku.

This sent Alysa over the edge. She was gasping for breath and clutching her sleeping bag, attempting to form sentences as well. It went something like "…can't….breathe…skinny-dip…naked…how…"

Riku's usually pale complexion was invaded by a force of redness, followed by him staring at his sleeping bag. He stole a quick glance at Sora, who was embarrassed to no end of his outburst of boldness.

Alysa, who ended up not needing a defibrillator, regained her composure and realized it was her turn.

To keep it _fair_, she picked Sora.

"Sora, Truth or Dare."

Said cinnamon-spiked boy jumped, and spat out,

"Truth."

Muhahaha.

* * *

"Alright then, who at the pool today did you think was the most attractive?" 

Riku rolled his eyes, while Sora quickly thought up an answer.

"Umm a-Aerith." He replied, really hoping that was the truth.

"Going for the older ladies I see, Sora you dog." She said, mock-punching him with a grin on her face. "Whatch out for Cloud though, he'd rip you to shreds."

Sora shuddered, retreating inside his bag, head poking out, waiting for the next one, and for the end of this hell-hole game.

"Sora."

A deep voice penetrated his split-second thoughts.

Sora looked up to see those aquamarine eyes once again settling on him.

"Truth or Dare?" said the owner of the eyes.

Ouch, a double-beating.

"D-dare."

"Okay, prank-call Leon as a stalker person." Said Riku.

Well, there was obviously there was the obstacle that there was no power. Sora opened his mouth to make that point known when Alysa read his mind and shoved her cell phone into his face.

"Here. He's speed dial number 41." She said a-matter-of-factly.

Sora flipped open the pink RAZR and hit **4** **1** and then listened for the ring tone. None came, and then he heard an automated voice.

"_Welcome to the Pentagon, please enter your PIN number._"

"What?" asked Sora, pulling the phone away from his ear.

"Oops! Sorry! I meant 14!" cried Alysa, very flustered and muttering to herself. She grabbed the phone and dialed it for him.

Sora once again put the phone up to his ear.

After 2 rings, a muffled voice picked up.

* * *

"_Who the hell is calling during a thunderstorm?"_

Apparently Leon had been sleeping the thunderstorm away.

Sora stuttered along.

"H-hi there, umm I just wanted to say that I think you're absolutely amazing and hot. Yuffie doesn't deserve you."

Sora let out a loud sigh, really quite damn nervous.

"_Sora, tell Riku next time he tells someone to prank-call me, I'm going to rip out his spleen and shove it back down his throat. And don't call me again. Click."_

The line disconnected.

Sora looked at the others, who were wide-eyed and flabbergasted.

Then they burst out laughing.

This went on for about 3 minutes. When Alysa calmed down first, she said "That sounded very convincing. Did he buy it?"

"N-no, he said he's going to kill Riku." Sora replied, turning to said teen.

"Oh well." Was his only answer.

"Sora's turn again." Alysa repeated.

"Alysa, Truth or Dare?" he said, gaining more confidence despite the game's mentally-damaging aspects.

"Dare." She said, smiling because of Sora's infectious enjoyment.

"Okay, I dare you to do the same as I did but with Cloud. And you can't act like someone else." He said, with a rare smirk coming across his face. Priceless.

"You got it babe." She said, taking back her trusty Veronica (4) and pushing **1 5**.

* * *

"_Umm..hello?_" 

Alysa began her rant.

"Cloud! _Darling_! I just called to admit to you that I find you soooo sexy. Aerith has no idea what she has. I stay up at night waiting for you at my window. YOU WILL BE MINE one day honey. Ta."

Click.

"Simple." She said with great satisfaction.

* * *

The game of Truth or Dare went on for quite a while after that, with Riku and Alysa making each other's turns even more evil. Sora mostly kept to the mischievous ones, but it was an all out war between the cousins. 

There was one where Riku had to walk through the entire house blindfolded, Alysa called a French Cuisine restaurant and ordered 12 tacos, and when the waiter started talking in French, Alysa replied in Swahili and then said 'me no comprende' and hung up, Sora drank pickle juice, etc., etc.

At around 10:30, the game had peaked at it's ferocity.

It was Alysa's turn, and she was in a particularly mischievous mood.

* * *

"Riku. Truth or Dare." 

"Dare." He said, staring at her as if challenging her to make his life a burning hell.

And that's exactly what she intended.

"Alright then, I dare you to…"

"…make a move on Sora here."

Riku wanted to rip her head off.

"And make it convincing! I want to actually think you're hitting on Sora."

Riku finally realized that he had no choice but to do it, if he didn't then Alysa would never let him live it down (not to say that she would if he did, but that's another discussion entirely).

"Fine."

After that, Riku seemed to take on an entirely different persona, locking eyes with Sora (who was wide-eyed and freaked out by Alysa's request). In fact, this was the first time that he could remember when he was staring at Sora and not angry.

He got on all fours, and started crawling to Sora, who had started to back up. Riku had on a seductive and _extremely_ convincing smile.

**

* * *

Sora's POV **

_WHAT THE HELL!_

Sora was very alarmed, still backing up. Were his eyes still on him? Yup, still there. Crap. Oh well, as well as I can keep backing up, maybe it won't be so embarrassing.

_OW!_

Oh fuck.

**

* * *

Riku's POV **

_I can't believe that I'm doing this. Okay, calm down, just imagine he's a girl, it's not that hard, you thought he was a girl in the first place. You've done this kind of stuff with girls all the time. You're Riku, the sexual beast here! Come on!_

**

* * *

Normal POV **

By this time, Sora had ran out of space to back up, hitting a couch, and Riku was approaching with greater confidence.

Sora's face started to get a red tint to it, and Riku finally closed the gap.

Riku traced his hand on Sora's foot, before moving it up to his knee. He leaned forward slowly.

Sora resembled a deep red now, looking sideways to find a way to get away. This was _not_ what he bargained for.

Riku moved that hand up further, to his hip, and started playing with the hem of his shirt.

Sora's complexion was nothing but red now, and it was taking all of his strength to not pass out.

Riku looked up from his hands, seeing the 4 inch gap between them.

He closed in, feeling Sora's bated breath.

3 inches, 2 inches, 1…

* * *

A/N: Ahh it's the cliffie of all cliffies! I'm such a tease. I got through writing this without throwing up! Yeah I know I said someone else was going to do that but the people I had in mind to do it actually read this story and I can't give special treatment. Cookies for me doing it! What do ya think? Pretty sweet I know. Sorry for the shortness I guess, its only 100 words more than the first chapter. 

Flame me all you want, I hold all the cards muhahahaha.

Oh, and thanks for all the love and kindness, I guess tension kinda breaking is a gift, or maybe it's a curse.

* * *

(1) If you're going to flame me for something, do it without politics people, I don't hate Rumsfeld, my parents are republican and I don't want to be a Democrat and Independents are just Bipolar so I have no idea what I am politically. So shut it about the politics. 

(2) This is Alysa's thought, which is an EXTREME rarity for you all to see because one cannot comprehend her mental processing abilities.

(3) Despite being a party-lover, Alysa is a virgin because no man deserves to behold and defile something such as Alysa. Go ahead and call me a feminist and I'll say she's just like Larxene nobody is allowed to seduce her.

(4) I named Alysa's pink RAZR Veronica, why? I have no idea.

* * *

REVIEW! Thanks. 


	9. End of Cliffie, Ice Cream, & Fumigation

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

**RBW's Probably-Not-Going-To-Be-Read-Because-Of-The-Cliffie Drabble:** Hey everybody! My computer almost crashed last week, I thought that I'd lost everything. Anyway. How's life? Pretty good? Have a fun Halloween? I was a Goth kid. Eh? (stares at crowd, all shooting daggers, waiting for story to start.) Oh. That. What, I can't get some talky time? Well excuse me. Maybe I'll just run off with the manuscript right now. (takes out M16) HAHA none of you can stop me! (runs away).

Alysa: (walks up) Hm? What's this? **Chapter 9**. He must've dropped it.

**Disclaimer:** Okay, so get this. Square Enix and Disney decided to put the copyright rights for auction on Ebay. I lost to this guy from Montreal. He bought it for 1.8 billion dollars. Oh, and Alysa said she's stickin' with her homie **redwing55**.

* * *

Riku closed in, close enough to feel Sora's bated breath blowing on him. 

3 inches between them…

2 inches….

A mere 1 inch…

From here Riku could count the strands of hair that fell in Sora's beet-red face.

Still moving in…

_Just turn your head a bit…_

"ICE CREAM!!!! I FORGOT THE ICE CREAM!!!"

And with the screaming, Alysa hopped up and sped into the dark kitchen.

Riku and Sora's noses were still touching.

….

If it were even remotely possible, each of the hormonal boys' faces turned even redder.

Riku tried to back out of the tangle of limbs, with attempts of sentences coming out of his mouth. He tripped on Sora's ankle, and finally got back to his sleeping bag.

Sora stayed where he was shoved up against the couch.

Alysa came back, juggling 2 tubs of ice cream with one hand, 1 tub and 2 spoons with the other, and a spoon dangling from her mouth.

The two of them just stared at her while she set all the stuff on the table.

She caught their glances.

"What? Can't have it melt can we?"

With that she took one of the tubs, took the spoon from her mouth, and started annihilating her Chunky Monkey Ice Cream (now with more fudge chunks!).

The boys continued to stare at her, one reason being she completely forgot about what had happened seconds before and for another that she was shoveling that crap in like a paper shredder.

She looked up, stopped, and swallowed.

"Oh! Sorry! Here Sora, you look like a kid who loves his chocolate. And Riku, here's your plain vanilla."

She handed the tubs to the 2 of them, and they grabbed spoons and started eating absentmindedly.

* * *

Alysa was, in fact, right when she said Sora looked like a chocolate-lover. He loved the stuff, it was like his crack. He hadn't had much due to the foster home moving, but he did occasionally have some. He couldn't really focus the much though, the previous events had put him in a sort of shell-shocked vertigo feeling. 

_Riku? Making a move on me??!?!_

_**You know you liked it.**_

_What? No I didn't!!!_

_**Liar. You wanted Riku to do that to you.**_

_No I didn't… Alysa made him…_

_**Sure.**_

* * *

If Riku, on the other hand, had to be stranded on a desert island for 3 years and could only bring a meat locker-full of 1 item, he would pick vanilla ice cream. Why? Because, well, nobody knows why. Just you should know that never put vanilla ice cream in front of Riku and try to touch it, your fingers will be caught in the frenzy and either he would bite them off by accident or on purpose. 

After the ice cream had been consumed (and once again, in Alysa's case, genocidally murdered), the 3 of them found themselves in complete and utter darkness, and decided to sleep.

Save for the pounding of summer rain, Riku was in complete silence. Times like these were a haven for him, to be able to think in tranquility. Though tonight things were different.

_Why did Alysa make me do that???_

**_Why? Because she's evil._**

_Yeah, I know that, but it was just out of the ordinary._

_**Well she's very mysterious.**_

_Hmmm, I can't believe I did that to Sora._

_**Why? You merely did a dare.**_

…

**_You…you didn't like it did you??_**

_No!! No of course not! Sora is not attractive! I don't like him! He ruined my summer remember?_

_**Okay…**_

* * *

BOOOMMMMMM 

Sora jumped in his sleeping bag again. There was no way he was going to fall asleep in this rain…

* * *

The next morning came quickly, bringing sunshine and chirping birds to clear out last night's rain. 

Riku awoke groggily and stumbled into the kitchen, again, to find Alysas cheery as 5-year-old on Christmas morning, again.

_Orange juice._

Riku opened the refrigerator door, and was greeted by unkindly light.

"Power's back on." Chirped Alysa.

"…Thanks." Riku snorted, pulling out the carton and drinking the last half of it in one giant chug.

Alysa drained her coffee, jumped off the seat, and went to go get Sora up.

"Sora…Soorraaa…"

_Hm? Wah?_

Sora opened his eyes to the tiniest of cracks, only to find 2 blue orbs staring down at him, once again.

_What kind of hell is this?_

"Morning sleepyhead! Have wonderful dreams?" asked Alysa in a sugary-sweet voice.

"Eh….," was Sora's college-educated reply.

"Great! Well get up, I'm making French Toast! I just need to go get my special spatula, I think it's upstairs…"

And with that she retreated upstairs.

Sora walked into the kitchen to find Riku drinking coffee.

Suddenly Sora remembered what had happened last night, and it hit him like a wave.

_Oh crap. And we haven't said anything since._

Sora was about to expertly steer around Riku and head for the fridge when he heard a screech from upstairs.

Alysa.

* * *

Riku nodded towards Sora to follow and they raced upstairs. They got to Alysa's room, and found no one. 

They walked down the hallway to find Sora's down a bit open. They peeked inside and found Alysa kneeling on the floor, as content as a little schoolgirl.

She was prodding a line of bugs, what they were neither Riku nor Sora knew.

"Uh, Alysa, we heard you scream. What are you doing?" inquired Riku.

Alysa didn't turn, but instead kept messing with the bugs, quite fascinated.

"I was getting my spatula, and I found these crawling in Sora's room. Aren't they adorable?"

Alysa had amazed Sora many times during his stay, and yet her calling these horrendous things 'adorable' was yet another example.

"Uh..right..shouldn't we call someone, like maybe Leon?"

"Yess…scutter about my minions…huh? Okay…fine." She said, clearly disappointed that someone was going to do something to her new friends, whatever they were.

She stood up and took her spatula, which was resting on Sora's bed. They walked downstairs and Riku called Leon while Alysa got out the griddle to make her oh-so-famous breakfast.

"Yeah…come over…they're crawling everywhere…yes…okay thanks Leon…_click_." Riku put the phone back on the receiver and sat down.

"Leon's coming to check it out."

"Goodie! He can have some breakfast." Alysa squealed, spraying cooking oil.

Riku shuddered, not going unnoticed by Sora. Was there something wrong with her cooking?

Sora had no idea how big of a yes that was until he tried her French Toast.

* * *

She looked so happy and expectant when she handed the plate to him. He could feel her eyes on him when he took the first bite. 

Well, how could he put this lightly?

It felt as if his esophagus was bursting into flames and spitting oil into his stomach, leeches were slithering down his throat while biting his insides on the way down, and having the gut-wrenching taste of Styrofoam and acne medication.

Of course, he couldn't say that to Alysa, so he put on the best face possible and smiled at her, with a thumbs up.

Next to him, Riku was going through the same inhumane torture.

The doorbell rang, and Alysa went to get it.

Needless to say Riku and Sora both threw their meals in the trash immediately.

Poor trashcan.

Alysa came back with Leon in tow. He looked in the same grouchy mood as always, hair in face, shooting daggers at everything in existence, folded arms, aura of meanness, the works.

"It's upstairs in Sora's room." She said, leading him up the stairs.

When she left, the two opened the fridge and tried to find something to wash the horrible taste out.

* * *

After about 3 different food groups, Alysa came down and made a plate for Leon. 

He came down a bit later, flushed, with a bit of drywall in his hair.

"You've got some type of termite, must have come in the house last night when all that rain washed out their last home." He said, picking out the drywall.

"Alright, I'll call the exterminator since Tessa and Rich won't be home for 3 days, all that work. French Toast?" said Alysa, offering him the plate.

Behind her, Sora and Riku were shaking their heads no towards him, and he seemed to get it.

"No thanks."

"Wha-what? You-you don't like my cooking??" she asked, tearing up.

"Fine." He said snatching the plate and taking a bite.

Well I'll tell you, Leon _almost_ lost his cool after that, stuttering a bit before gaining his composure once more.

He shoved it back at Alysa, who was cheerful as ever once more.

"Thanks."

"You're Welcome!"

He turned to leave, passing Riku on his way out.

_SMACCKKKK_

"Hey! What was that for?!?" cried Riku, rubbing his forehand where Leon had slapped him.

"Prank-calling me." He replied, not looking back, and walked out the door.

* * *

The rest of the day was quite boring. 

Sora and Riku sat and watched T.V. (completely opposite couches mind you), while Alysa called up an exterminator.

She finally got a man to come over at around 3.

His accent was Southern, his clothing was Southern, his facial hair was Southern, heck, even the guy's truck was Southern, littered with Confederate flags.

They weren't even in the South.

Anyway, the guy took his sweet time getting upstairs, assessing the damage, making a nice hole in the wall that the guy always has to cut for absolutely no reason, no matter what because without it where else would your well-earned money go otherwise.

He concluded that not only did they have termites from last night's rain, they had also a few cockroaches.

Nothing a fumigation can't fix.

"Wait, so where am I going to sleep?" asked Sora.

"Don't worry! We have guest rooms!" said Alysa.

"Sorry ma'am, I'm afraid those rooms must be fumigated too, the termites moved into those rooms and the master bedroom." Interrupted the burly Southern man.

"Oh, well, doesn't the whole house have to be fumigated?" asked Alysa.

"No, I can just close off those rooms and have the poison run through the whole time for about 2 days."

"Alright, I'll call Riku's parents. Sora, I'm sure Riku wouldn't mind letting you bunk with him."

**WHAT!!!!??!!?!?!!??**

* * *

A/N: And I'm back! Ready to tell the story? What? You already read it?!!? Aww, Okay. Ohhh, 'bunking' now are we? This'll be fun. 

Review as always!

RBW

* * *


	10. A Night To Remember

**A Fostering Relationship**

By RedBlackandWhite

**RBW's Somewhat pissed off Drabble:** Okay, here's the deal. IF YOU DON'T LIKE SLASH PAIRINGS **DO NOT **READ THIS STORY AND THEN BITCH TO ME ABOUT HOW YOU DIDN'T LIKE IT! I could care less if you either don't like homosexuals or don't think such things should be done to the good characters of Kingdom Hearts. The only between you and this story is a window and your vision. So close the window or get off your lazy ass and go critique something else, seeing as that's the only thing you truly enjoy. I've already spent an author's note explaining how I don't write the slash pairings in here, my friend **breakintoyourheart** has offered to do it. I doubt anything sexual will even take place. So take your political views and go somewhere else, because God knows I don't need to hear them.

In other, calmer, news, I'm probably going to rap this story up in about 5 chapters. And I'm also writing an **alternate ending** just because I want to, so that'll be probably chapter 16.

**Word Count: 2,682**

**Disclaimer:**

Uhh…if I owned anything then it wouldn't be fanfiction now would it?

Alysa is **redwing55**'s

Don't own the song.

* * *

"Alysa, why do Sora and I have to bunk???"

"Riku, where the HELL have you been for the last hour?"

"Here! I know _why_ you suggested it but _why_ me?"

"Don't blame me; I'm not the one with the Y chromosome."

"You _always_ use that excuse."

Riku was infuriated because one, Alysa was bloody good at comebacks, and two, sleeping with the porcupine was between sticking a sprinkler up his ass and jumping into a pile of rotting toenail clippings on his to-do list.

Sora was sitting there, idly. He was in more worried about the bunking thing itself then Riku's rage; one must not forget Riku's nighttime tendencies. Call the EMTs, we've got a severe case of awkwardness. Sora had only been in Riku's room once, and he didn't like being in there, it reminded him of a Hot Topic that had been hit by a tornado, the messiness blending together with the posters and such.

"Why not I just sleep on the couch?" he piped, diverting Alysa's attention from the Southern man's odd shirt with the redneck statement, (Get 'er done.) on the back, to him.

"Sora Sora Sora Sora Sora….Sora. You're our guest! That couch is not comfy, too many lost sharp pointy objects in it, Riku's bed is _much_ better!" was her cheerful reply, one that bled with irony.

"WAIT HOLD IT! What's wrong with a pump up mattress???" cried Riku.

At this Alysa, for probably the first time since Sora's stay, stuttered, something to behold in the rarest of moments, and out of character to say the least.

"Oh, well, well, we've never needed that, and last year there was this party, and... the wine corkscrew…and the vodkan martini… IT WAS LEON'S PET MONKEY I SWEAR!!" Alysa exclaimed, flailing her upper extremities frantically and refusing to back up the idea that Leon ever had a pet monkey.

"I really doubt that." Was Riku's answer.

So the man left, big dirty boots leaving a trail across Tessa's spotless tile floor. The three were now alone with nothing but a hole in the wall and Alysa's fascination with her doomed royal subjects.

No, of course she's not crazy, don't be silly.

* * *

Well, as it turned out, the man came back a bit later, taking a path across the tile floor parallel to his previous one, to maximize filth spreading, and blocked off part of the house, turning on a big machine that made a humming noise which distributed poison through a tube into the walls.

As the day went on, Riku came to the realization again and again what he would be doing (not the best term, but work with him) that night, and it wasn't reassuring.

He was at his desk, hunched over, the latest band with some witty name they came up with when they were high on aerosol or what have you playing in the background.

He was writing in his journal, _not_ a diary mind you, which he did most nights because with a cousin like Alysa some day this thing was going to be something like a bestseller on how to identify a psycho before they start raping little boy scouts while they're out in the wilderness so nobody can hear their blood-curdling screams.

…right…

Okay, so it was more like yelling at this paper that had done him no wrong about how Alysa is so evil, scribbling everywhere and making little cartoons on the sides depicting bloody and horrible decapitations, lynching, torture by means of accordion music, etc.

A few inches over, the blue pen and green highlighter were discussing how horrible the notebook was being treated, the three having been neighbors for a quite a while, until suddenly Riku grabbed the highlighter, which promptly cried for help from pen while being crushed underneath the sweaty, calloused palm, the fingertips putting force onto the writing utensil's manufactured plastic, causing great pain. But alas, the highlighter must have forgotten that pens don't have arms. Or legs for that matter.

Riku abrasively gave the highlighter blunt force trauma to the head on the paper, highlighting the word DIE ALYSA DIE and putting it back where it belonged in a single throwing motion. He then grabbed the pen, and, knowing its fate, quietly had a heart attack, and died.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sora was sitting idly on the couch, immersed in his own musings. This had been the most interesting few days ever in his meager existence. Since his arrival, he'd met the devil's sister (or other close relative, the devil has a very large family), two people who seem to trust their dependents a great deal when it came to being alone, and a boy who wanted to throttle him one moment, and the next is feeling him over fervently.

"Sora, my dear, you've got the most _gorgeous_ hair I've ever seen, but…it's so damn _stubborn_ that I can hardly do anything with it."

Sora muttered things, while Alysa sighed heavily from her position on top of the couch, above Sora's head. She swung down beside him and clicked on the TV, ruffling the boy's hair absent-mindedly.

Halfway through a reporter's story on an Oktoberfest-induced fire, Sora turned to the young woman.

"Hey Alysa, why do I keep getting shoved towards Riku? It seems like that's all that ever happens. Am I doing something wrong?" Sora asked, his eyes shining with wonder and innocence.

Alysa turned and smiled.

"Sora, no! It's not you! Maybe God just wants it this way. It's just a group of coincidences over a short period of time. I'm sure this will all blow over soon and you won't have any trouble for the rest of your stay. And about the sleeping thing, it's not _that_ big of a deal. Riku will probably just ignore you. Don't take it personally, he's a normally moody guy anyway."

Sora wasn't comforted at all by this assurance.

About an hour later, Alysa ordered Italian and they ate in partial silence, the looming prospect of sleeping shutting Sora and Riku up.

Sadly, like many things, it failed to shut up Alysa.

The current topic: Riku's hair.

"Seriously, we _need_ to cut it. It looks like Meryl Streepe accidentally conditioned her hair with a male hair growth hormone for a year and didn't notice the extra 6 inches. Let me just hack it off and give it to a dying cancer patient!"

Riku snarled. "No. I like it."

"Pleaaaaassssssseeeeee."

"NO!"

"Don't shout at the dinner table Riku, it's rude. Sora, pass the antipasti."

* * *

The time passed rapidly, and before they knew it, the Swiss grandfather clock in Richard's billiard room boomed ten times, reverberating through the entire house.

Riku groaned.

"Alright littlies, time for biddy-bye!" Announced Alysa, jumping up from the couch she had been laying on and twirling like a ballerina towards the stairs, ushering her siblings with her.

Riku pulled on his nighttime attire, with the addition of a shirt. He threw his other clothes on the floor and walked towards the adjoining bathroom, leaning against the wall and began a rhythmic pattern of banging his head against it.

Said bathroom was occupied by Sora, who had also changed into his pajamas, and again, also put on a shirt. He brushed his teeth quickly, Riku's headbands echoing through the wall.

He opened the door cautiously to find Riku leaning against the doorframe. Sora walked towards the center of the room and heard the door slam shut. A voice to his left surprised him.

"My my, someone is tense." remarked Alysa, regarding Riku's state. She was leaning against the doorframe leading into the hallway, dressed to go to sleep.

Sora nodded.

"Well, might as well get in bed. He'll be out any second."

Sure enough, the sound of the water hitting the sink ceased at the moment.

Sora climbed into the king-sized bed and scooted all the way over to where the edge met the wall. The realization that he would be cornered against it came to Sora, and it didn't help his situation at all.

* * *

The door swung open and Riku's figure headed towards the bed, Sora lost all feeling in his extremities as he stared at the ceiling. A great shift in the bed announced Riku. The bed settled and Sora didn't dare look over to his right.

"Alright loves, no nighttime strolling now." Said Alysa. Sora could imagine the smirk on her face as she turned off the second light, plunging the dimmed room into complete darkness.

"Sweet dreams."

And with that, she shut the door and Sora knew that he heard something that sounded distinctly like a door being locked.

Absolute silence.

Through it one could hear the ruffling of sheets, the creaking of the springs, and once in a while, a bated breath.

* * *

The humidity of the warm summer night air was unforgiving. The chirping of crickets and cicadas shattering the glass of the night.

Riku awoke with a start from his slumber, sweating and confused. It must've been a bad dream, because now he was wide awake and the noise outside would inhibit his going back to sleep.

He lay there, staring at the ceiling, the moonlight shining brilliantly through the opened window above the bed to his left.

It also shone on the face of the bed's other occupant. Riku couldn't resist looking, for some reason he felt like he had to.

The boy had turn towards Riku, the light reflecting off his perfectly smooth, tanned skin.

For one moment, all of Riku's inherited dislike of the boy evaporated, the serenity of his figure showed that of merely a person, one whom Riku did not dislike.

It was here that Riku realized how mean he had been to Sora, and for what? A stupid reason of a summer being _ruined_.

His contemplation was interrupted with the slight wince of Sora's face. He shifted the most immeasurable of space, and his face screwed up a bit.

_A bad dream most likely_, thought Riku, as Sora began to mumble inaudible things. Riku lifted himself up, staring intently.

"…..…no…please…..don't go……" was what Riku could pick up from the boy's mouth.

Stress overcame Sora's face as he looked quite uncomfortable.

"……..don't leave…..the……..hurricane………"

Riku was shocked. So _that's_ what happened to Sora. A hurricane?

What a horrible experience. No wonder he's so timid.

Was that why he had become an orphan?

A wave of guilt swept over him as he laid back down, a million things swirled inside his head.

Sora quieted down, and Riku finally drifted into an uneasy sleep, the last thing he saw being that moonlit face.

* * *

Sora's eyes twitched a bit.

The sunlight rained down on his eyes relentlessly. He cracked them open just a tad and was greeted by more of the brightness.

He reached for them, his arms aching as he commanded them to move.

He rubbed his eyes a few times, and finally became accustomed to the light.

He sat up, stretching his upper body and looking out the window.

The sun was peeking over the horizon, its red-orange-yellow glow greeting the world with gusto. The grass was glittered with dew as the birds chirped in the tree near the window.

Sora tore his eyes away from the landscape and looked around the room. The clothes on the floor and the posters reminded him of his location.

He promptly looked down and saw the boy, lying on his stomach, facing towards Sora.

The silver hair was laying over his eyes, his mouth slightly open in a way one is usually found while deeply asleep.

Sora, like anyone else, found this rather funny and smirked. He quietly pulled the covers off of him and slowly creeped over Riku's body, getting up and walking towards the bathroom.

Riku awoke to the sound of running water, his eyes shut with sleep and his body aching.

His hand blindly searched and found an empty space to his left, and expertly deducted that Sora was not, in fact, in the bed.

Which explained the running water, because water doesn't run just because it feels like it, it always has a reason.

Listening more closely, Riku heard a voice amongst the water hitting the glass of the shower. A tenor voice, in fact, singing something that Riku could only vaguely hear.

……_I am here for you if you'd only care. _

_You touched my heart you touched my soul. _

_You changed my life and all my goals. _

_And love is blind and that I knew when, _

_My heart was blinded by you. _

Riku opened his eyes and raised his head, in a sort of trance by the beautiful voice. Looking at the bathroom door, he saw it was shut.

_I've kissed your lips and held your head. _

_Shared your dreams and shared your bed. _

_I know you well, I know your smell. _

_I've been addicted to you. _

Riku swung his legs over the side of his bed and shook his himself awake.

_Goodbye my lover. _

_Goodbye my friend. _

_You have been the one. _

_You have been the one for me. _

He stood up and walked towards the door, leaning on the doorframe once again, listening intently.

_I am a dreamer but when I wake, _

_You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take. _

_And as you move on, remember me, _

_Remember us and all we used to be _

_I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile. _

_I've watched you sleeping for a while. _

_I'd be the father of your child. _

_I'd spend a lifetime with you. _

_I know your fears and you know mine. _

_We've had our doubts but now we're fine, _

_And I love you, I swear that's true. _

_I cannot live without you._

The shower shut off, and the sounds of shuffling feet and the opening of the shower door replacing it's noise.

Riku broke from his trance, and watched as the door handle turned.

Out walked Sora, or what he thought was Sora, the hair was sticking against his head.

He was wearing a pure white bathrobe and dabbing his neck with a small towel.

Sora looked up and saw the towering figure to his right and jumped.

Riku smiled, one that amazingly had no traces of hatred.

"You've got a great voice."

* * *

A/N: So Riku's changed now huh? This was a great chapter. I had a lot of trouble writing the beginning though. Remember I wrote that beginning A/N about a month or two ago. Anybody notice a difference in my writing style? I hope so, I'm studying to write original fiction. I think I'm getting out of the fanfiction phase. Don't worry I'll finish this. I hope you all didn't hate the song, it's "Goodbye My Lover" by James Blunt. I don't like songs in stories but I had to put this one in. I applaud you all for waiting so long. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.

RBW.

* * *


End file.
